MESA, Ariz. — It doesn’t seem all that long ago that Tony Stewart was watching what everyone at Don Schumacher Racing was doing, trying to learn how the NHRA drag-racing world operated but being extra-careful to be respectful of the teams’ time and space.
Now he’s a multi-car NHRA team owner, two-time Top Fuel winner, in both four-wide and traditional two-wide style and in hot weather and in cool temperatures and the points leader.
After his May 18 victory at Route 66 Raceway at Joliet, Ill., Stewart said, “You’ve got to believe we’re real now at this point. I wouldn’t have said it before today. Even in Vegas [following his first Top Fuel victory April 13], I said we’re making progress but we’re not where we need to be yet. But it’s hard to be the points leader and not think you’re a contender now.
“It’s no guarantee that it’s going to stay this way, but to be six races in the season and leading the points, we got a lot to be proud of,” Stewart said.
And if his critics — people he described as “keyboard warriors that are dumbasses that sit in their mother’s basements and don’t do a damn thing and haven’t accomplished anything in their life” — don’t like it, Stewart said, “they literally can kiss my ass. And I’ll sit there and stick it out for ’em, too, because they don’t do a damn thing. They’ve never accomplished anything in their life. They don’t know how to work hard to be successful in anything. That’s why they say the shit they say on the internet.”
It sticks in his craw that they “tell you how bad you are at what you do. But they can’t tell you to your face. I’ve never stood at the ropes and had anybody come up there and go, ‘You really are bad at this and you should put your wife in the car.’ But I read it on the iInternet: ‘Why is he driving the car? His wife’s way better. She almost won a world championship.’ But now they can kiss my ass.”
For Stewart, that’s motivation, this urge to “have to fight and prove these people wrong. That’s the pride I take now.” He said he was going to celebrate the Joliet victory before the series action resumes May 30-June 1 at Epping, N.H., “because this is for all those people that say that I suck, I’m no good, I’m terrible, I’ve never been anything. This is for all those people. They don’t have anything to show for. I got two silver Wallys to show for it. We’ve proven these guys wrong, so they can say what they want to say now. Now they just look stupid when they say it. That’s the pride I take in what we’ve done today and what we’re accomplishing.”
He was adamant that he always rises to the challenge: “I appreciate the craft, the art of it, the art of being good as a driver in this sport versus everything else that I’ve had to learn. It’s just an extension of it, but it’s so different. Every time I’ve ever went to a new form of racing, everybody goes, ‘Aw- he’s not going to figure it out. Like hell- I’ll figure it out, bud. Don’t count against me on that. Don’t put your chips on the other side of the table. I promise you, I’ll figure this out eventually. And here we are today: we’ve won two races. and we might stumble the rest of the season and I may look foolish for what I’m saying, but we got this trophy standing here. And we’ve won two of them this year in six races. So I’m extremely proud of our team.”
ENJOY WHAT YOU ENJOY
In response to an Autoweek article earlier this month about Formula E racers promoting electric vehicles for consumers, a reader who goes by the handle of “wshafer743724” wisecracked, “The sound of silence….yeah my farts are louder.”
Hey, it’s junior-high-grade fun to say dopey things and sometimes hard not to giggle at totally inappropriate smartassery. But “wshafer743724,” you let out a big complaint that deserves a reaction.
While your comment probably got enough laughs to make you feel pretty clever, it smacked of smugness. So we’ll smack you back here.
Imagine racing at any level, as a team owner, driver, engineer, crew chief. All of these participants – whether it’s in sprint cars, late models, go-karts, midgets, trucking, drifting, drag-racing, IndyCar, or NASCAR – are passionate, intelligent, and hard-working. They have spent countless hard-earned dollars from their own pockets. They all are trying to perform their best with the equipment and budgets they have. And each series puts on a satisfying show time after time.
The next time you get the urge to criticize some form of motorsports, please feel free to keep it to yourself.
So, “wshafer743724,” you need a little tolerance — and maybe some air freshener.
